old riga

some additions when Riga was part of the USSR, not Latvia.

Stalin's Birthday Cake looks pretty similar to the Culture Institute in Warsaw. Andy and I paid our 2 lat a piece and were personally led by an old Latvian man (who spoke no English but claimed to love America, although he only knew about George Bush) up several elevators and staircases to the outdoor platform. With the doormat shoved in the door to keep it open, he told us to close the door when we were done and left us alone (mind you, this was in broken Russian and German with Andy interpreting). The wind off the river was freezing, but there was an amazing view and we were completely alone.

HUGE market spilling out of 4 hangars. Much like in communist times, everyone sold the same things: cheap clothes, dense dark bread (this stuff is crazy, it will last for 3 weeks in the open), honey, pastries, and Baltic amber.

Train station just south of the Old Town.

Not sure what this building was, but it was certainly hideous.

Typical Social Realist statue in front of the Museum of the Occupation (in an old Communist government building).


Two communist strong holds in a predominantly art nouveau neighborhood.

riga, latvia

riga was much more interesting than tallinn.









1: an old university, stepped steeples like this were also really popular in poland. 2: new and old in old town. 3: house of the blackheads. 4: most squares in the old town now have outdoor cafes. 5: i squealed so loudly when i saw this dog that he lunged at me. it was love at first sight, but the owner didn't get it and took the dog away from me. 6: orthodox. 7: squat. 8: my little pony in the gardens at the western border of the old town. 9: i saw a few wooden horses like this while driving through latvia and lithuania, but i couldn't figure out their significance. they reminded me of deborah butterfield's horse sculptures though.

tallinn, estonia

the only way to make a trip to the baltics affordable was to fly from warsaw to helsinki and take a ferry over to tallinn, then work our way back down to poland from there. what we hadn't planned on was just how expensive finland was. to save some money, we decided to skip the hostel and instead spent the night on benches outside the ferry terminal.

it wasn't all that bad because the sun never fully set (this picture was probably taken around 3 am.) but it was damn cold. and there was an annoying seagull pushing around an empty beer can for about two hours.

first day in tallinn. the old town is 'picturesque' but not very exciting if you've seen the castle thing before.

still light out at midnight.


all the baltic countries had different personalities; estonia was very scandinavian.

a days worth of food and another lesson in frugality.

we should have been looking for the controversial soviet statue, but sadly, it was in the suburbs, inaccessible to us. so instead, we slept in parks.